[X-Wing] Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design.

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**Manchu**

Emperor Palpatine arrives to X-Wing as a crew upgrade in the Imperial Raider Expansion Pack.

As you might expect, the Emperor isn't like your standard Imperial crew member. First of all, he's the most expensive crew upgrade currently in the game. Second, he requires two crew slots all to himself. Nonetheless, in the right Imperial build, Emperor Palpatine is well worth his squad-point cost:

"Once per round, you may change a friendly ship’s die result to any other die result. That die result cannot be modified again."

In X-Wing, each of your ships has, effectively, four concerns each round: maneuvering, performing actions, attacking, and defending. Of these, two require you to roll dice. Viewed in this light, the Emperor's ability to change any dice of your dice results grants you an unprecendented measure of control over nearly one-half of the game. Convert a blank attack die to a critical hit. Convert a blank defense die to an evade. Did your TIE fighter accidentally clip an asteroid? The Emperor can ensure that you don't suffer damage as a result. Did you suffer a crippling critical hit? The Emperor can easily resolve a Weapon Malfunction or shield you from the brunt of a Minor Explosion .

Also, notice the range restriction – there isn't one. His ability isn't limited to friendly ships at Range "1," nor to those within Range "1–3." He can alter the result of any of your dice results, anywhere on the table. Thus, even though you can currently fly him only on a Lambda-class shuttle, a VT-49 Decimator, or your Raider-class corvette, his ability can impact any of your ships, wherever it's located, and when you need it most.

Should you want to bring the galaxy's most powerful dark side Force user to the battlefield, you'll find plenty of uses for him in both Standard Play and Epic Play

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/5/26/the-grand-design/

Article includes some interesting sample builds.

**Peregrine**

Initial reaction: interesting, but the point cost and double crew slot requirement is going to be a problem. Unless you're supporting elite aces like Fel or Whisper you're probably going to have the same old "just buy another ship instead" problem that a lot of buff abilities suffer from. And if you do have one of those aces you're almost always going to be saving the effect for defense, since an extra point of damage isn't worth the chance of losing your key ship to bad dice unless the extra damage is getting a threat off the table. But 8 points is the equivalent of two shield upgrades, so you need to stop an extra two hits by changing Fel's dice just to break even on your investment. And that's not even considering the cost of the ship that is carrying Palpatine.

**Compel**

See, that seems fair to me...

New card, choice of roles in fleets, not an auto include.

Not everything needs to completely redesign the meta.

Plus, if my memory is correct, Palpatine in a shuttle being escorted by 2 Royal Guard Interceptors fits the TIE Fighter mission he was in.

**Manchu**

The issue is, it does allow you to wring some of the luck factor out of the game -- except that you kind of need to get lucky or unlucky in pretty specific ways to justify the point sink. So really you are trading one kind of chance for another. IMO the card is pretty ambivalent.

**Crazy_Carnifex**

Personally, I think Palpatine looks like one of those upgrades which does a little bit of everything, and so ends up overpriced if you use him for one thing only. Some games he'll be amazing, others he'll been a waste of two crew slots and 8 points.

**chaos0xomega**

I dont see that ability being worth the investment, I mean there are only really 2 options currently for him to ride shotgun in, and I think both of them can be configured to perform more useful functions without him

**Riquende**

Slightly disappointed. But that's probably just because he's not going to be able to ride shotgun in a Phantom, blasting people with Force Lightning as he goes past like I'd envisaged...

I'm struggling to make a list I like with him in. At the moment he's sitting on an otherwise naked shuttle, supporting Fel and Vader with all the usual upgrades (including Vader's engines). Comes to bang on 100, which I don't usually do. I'll give it a go, but really I'm thinking that the 29pts could be better spent elsewhere.

**Peregrine**

chaos0xomega wrote:
I dont see that ability being worth the investment, I mean there are only really 2 options currently for him to ride shotgun in, and I think both of them can be configured to perform more useful functions without him

I don't know, I think it really depends on how much of your RAC + Fel/Vader/Whisper strategy is invested in the decimator and how much is invested in the small ship. If your plan is to have RAC support the small ship then Palpatine is a pretty good investment. He's an insurance policy against one round of bad green dice costing you the game (one of your biggest risks with that kind of list) and can give a well-timed damage boost to remove an enemy ship before it can shoot. So many turns with Fel/Vader/Whisper come down to a single 1v1 engagement, and getting to choose the outcome of one die can be decisive. On the other hand, if the small ship is support for RAC then you're better off investing in crew that give a more direct improvement.

**Azeroth**

Palpatine might pair well with the new and improved Tie advanced pilots. Throw palatine on a shuttle with a sensor jammer and then use a pair of TIe advanced - Vader & "pick one" (I think I'd use strom) with TIE-X1 and ATC. PTL on the non Vader pilot and Predator on Vader. Palpatine could give you the potential to double crit once a turn.

I was also thinking a double decimator list that is all about maximizing damage. Vader on a patrol boat and Oicunn with palpatine, expose and experimental interface. Those two could dish out a ton of damage in a turn.

**MrMoustaffa**

I think he's pretty balanced at the whopping 8pts and 2 crew slots. He's still super handy, but his cost prohibits him from really being abused.

He'll be a lot of fun to run though, if I ever get crazy enough to buy the raider I can see myself quoting him quite a bit every time I use his ability.

"Stop flipping that fething defense die or I'm shoving that palpatine card down your throat."

"Good, good, let the hate flow through you. Embrace the dark side!"

"SHUT UP!"

**EmpNortonII**

Crazy_Carnifex wrote:
Personally, I think Palpatine looks like one of those upgrades which does a little bit of everything, and so ends up overpriced if you use him for one thing only. Some games he'll be amazing, others he'll been a waste of two crew slots and 8 points.

He may under perform, but he's never a waste.

I proxied him today using the 2 Int and shuttle list from the site.

I lost Fel in the first round of shooting from bad luck and won the dogfight.

Being able to turn a blank to a crit at will means a lot when you have the option of knowing, EXACTLY, how many hits you've made and your odds of scoring the crit on the enemy. Besides, its a 100% offensive upgrade every turn your Ints arc-dodged successfully, and an extra crit is very rarely wasted. Most of the responses seem to be focused on its defensive benefits- which are great, but it isn't just for creating evades.

Keep in mind that while you can only reroll a die once, nothing saysn you can't use Empy to turn your last blank die into a crit after its rerolled.

**ORicK**

I was also above all thinking of an extra critical hit on the moment you want it. And only use him defensively if it saves a ship.
It's an interesting card.

And a lot of points, yes.
But there are quite some builds that combine upgrades and turrets just to get re-rolls. This card gets you results.

**EmpNortonII**

ORicK wrote:
I was also above all thinking of an extra critical hit on the moment you want it. And only use him defensively if it saves a ship.
It's an interesting card.

And a lot of points, yes.
But there are quite some builds that combine upgrades and turrets just to get re-rolls. This card gets you results.

It does. My current thought is to replace the Mangler and Isard on my Oicunn/Scarlett build with Palpy. I frickin' never remember to put the token down. I always remember Palpy.

**Peregrine**

EmpNortonII wrote:
He may under perform, but he's never a waste.

Under-performing is the definition of "waste". Palpatine requires a major investment, if you aren't getting something awesome in return then it's a waste of points and crew slots.

Most of the responses seem to be focused on its defensive benefits- which are great, but it isn't just for creating evades.

It isn't just for that, but the lists that can actually use Palpatine effectively are built around Whisper/Vader/Fel/etc and those ships care way more about green dice than red dice. Rolling badly on an attack with Fel is rarely a big deal, you can keep arc dodging and rolling a million green dice until you get another shot. Rolling badly on defense with Fel means you lose the game. Palpatine removes a lot of the "oops, I lose" factor with those ships and that completely changes how the game is played.

ORicK wrote:
I was also above all thinking of an extra critical hit on the moment you want it. And only use him defensively if it saves a ship.

That's completely backwards. With Whisper/Fel/Vader/etc your top priority is defense because you have very few HP and one bad roll with the green dice ends the game. You'll almost always save Palpatine for defense unless either you're absolutely sure that you won't have to roll green dice this turn because you've dodged all the arcs, or you're going to get an immediate kill on a ship before it can return fire. In any other situation you keep your defensive "get out of jail free" card. The last thing you want to do is spend it on removing an extra shield from a b-wing and then lose Fel to a bad roll because you don't have the auto-evade.

**obsidianaura**

First time I saw this card I thought this looks great.

Now I'm wondering how I can really use this.

Putting him on Kenkirk's VT-49 with Isard and trying to hang on through the game maybe? Hitting hard till you get your defence boosts and guaranteeing a dodge if you don't manage to roll one. Maybe Lone Wolf could do something. Doesn't seem efficient though, don't think I could justify it all. Still likely to get overwhelmed by attacks and crits can ruin everything

**KellyJ**

Test played him with the Shuttle+HLC+EU and 2 kitted out Royals (100 pts) vs a VERY fat Chewie, a fat Han and a fat y-Wing (I wanted to stress test the build so I gave my opponent 150 points to play with, the limitation being 3 ships and a legal list...no twin C3POs).
In the end I burned down the Y wing PDQ, killed Chewie, and was working on Han when he conceded. In exchange I lost 1 Royal from back to back bad green rolls. Still, the 2nd Royal lived unscathed the entire game...It was wicked evil seeing Stealth Device still active that late in a game.
Partway through the match my opponent changed up and went after the Shuttle. I was slow-rolling it (Spd 0, Spd1, Spd 0, etc) until he shot me, so I used EU to then force a crash fest with the Falcons. Han ended up bumped and had to waste shots at the Royal while the Royal ripped up Chewie then the Shuttle HLC finished the Job.
Han broke free, shot the shuttle (removing the last Shields) only to be pounded by the Royal...then a lucky 4-hit with HLC...with Palps turning 1 of those hits to a Crit. That was the concession point.
Lesson learned from the IMP side...pay attention to your order of dice modification. Several times early on I used Palpy to roll a saving Evade...when Autothrusters would have provided the same benefit. So...roll greens. Need more evades? Check Autothruster activation. Check tokens (Focus vs Evade). Finally check Palps.
Always keep in mind Gunner or Luke. Sometimes its better to take the 1 hit.

**EmpNortonII**

Peregrine wrote:
EmpNortonII wrote:
He may under perform, but he's never a waste.

Under-performing is the definition of "waste". Palpatine requires a major investment, if you aren't getting something awesome in return then it's a waste of points and crew slots.

A waste is having gunner against a double-deci list.

**Peregrine**

EmpNortonII wrote:
A waste is having gunner against a double-deci list.

That's a huge waste (not a complete waste since gunner can occasionally help you there). But an upgrade doesn't have to be borderline useless to be a waste. If it underperforms relative to its cost then it's still a waste. You've received X points/upgrade slots worth of value but spent X+Y points/upgrade slots to get it, which means you wasted Y points/upgrade slots.

**Turnip Jedi**

Something Something dark side...

It's a kind of neat card but the double crew slot restricting it to Lambda and VT-49 is awfully limiting

It doesn't really do anymore that existing cards like Shield/Hull Upgrade, Stealth/Autothrusters or assorted Sensors and Targetting Computers do

Changing one dice per turn is most likely weaker than just chucking more dice to smooth out the averages,

It might be okay in a list that doesn't throw that many dice but those lists aren't great and I'm guessing he'd have to live till at least mid-game to mathwise come close to the 'moar dice theory'

**Manchu**

I wonder if FFG writes rules and then find a character to match them or the other way round.

**EmpNortonII**

Manchu wrote:
I wonder if FFG writes rules and then find a character to match them or the other way round.

... that's a very good thought.

**thesilverback**

The emperor is a must have character fluff wise but he doesn't need to be an imperial must have character. The high point cost and double crew slots is going to make it a limited use item. FFG has to make his ability over the top powerful or it would never see the board, what good is creating something if people never use it.

**Peregrine**

Turnip Jedi wrote:
It doesn't really do anymore that existing cards like Shield/Hull Upgrade, Stealth/Autothrusters or assorted Sensors and Targetting Computers do

It does two huge things that those cards can't do:

1) It gives Fel/Vader/etc another upgrade slot. You aren't going to choose between taking the emperor or putting stealth + autothrusters on Fel, you're going to do both. Fel/Vader/Whisper were already powerful, and now they get even better.

2) It creates an imperial "Biggs" equivalent. Fel/Vader/Whisper are extremely hard to deal with when they have a free die change to help them escape a bad roll, which means you're almost certainly going to want to kill that 29 point shuttle hiding in the back corner of the table before trying to deal with the ace. That gets your ace through the dangerous opening turns while you work on setting up a good endgame for them to win.

**Crazy_Carnifex**

Peregrine wrote:
Turnip Jedi wrote:
It doesn't really do anymore that existing cards like Shield/Hull Upgrade, Stealth/Autothrusters or assorted Sensors and Targetting Computers do

It does two huge things that those cards can't do:

1) It gives Fel/Vader/etc another upgrade slot. You aren't going to choose between taking the emperor or putting stealth + autothrusters on Fel, you're going to do both. Fel/Vader/Whisper were already powerful, and now they get even better.

2) It creates an imperial "Biggs" equivalent. Fel/Vader/Whisper are extremely hard to deal with when they have a free die change to help them escape a bad roll, which means you're almost certainly going to want to kill that 29 point shuttle hiding in the back corner of the table before trying to deal with the ace. That gets your ace through the dangerous opening turns while you work on setting up a good endgame for them to win.

This is kinda how I plan on using him. With a cheap shuttle, I can run Vader and Fel with everything except missiles (have to put Lone Wolf or Vet Instincts on Vader). Shuttle goes down dead centre as bait, and then holds back as bait/points denial. Vader and Fel then flank my opponent. Emperor helps keep them alive, and on turns I arc dodge adds extra firepower.